School-age children without nasal masks to be arrested – Sunyani MCE | Social

Mrs. Justina Owusu-Banahene, Sunyani municipal executive director, said Thursday that the Assembly’s COVID-19 task force would arrest school-age children without nasal masks.

Assembly officials, he said, would later identify and sanction the parents of those children who did not wear the masks.

He advised parents to provide their children with nasal masks and hand sanitizers to protect them against COVID-19.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mad Owusu-Banahene, who is also Bono’s designated regional minister, said that the Assembly would deploy its COVID-19 working group to patrol and enforce protocols in the municipality.

The 52-member task force comprises personnel from the Third Garrison Battalion (3BN), Police, Firefighters, Immigration Service and Prison Service.

When the children returned to school, Mad Owusu-Banahene highlighted the Assembly’s readiness and determination to ensure that all school-age children were safe in both the school environment and Sunyani Township.

He said that the Assembly, with the support of the central government, had already provided the basic schools of the Municipality with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including Veronica Buckets, nasal masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

He tasked the principals and teachers of the basic schools to ensure that children were protected in schools by making sure they wore PPE properly.

He noted that the COVID-19 working group did an excellent job last year and that it helped the Assembly to contain and prevent the spread of the pandemic.

However, the task force was withdrawn en route because the masses were adhering to the protocols.

“Since the working group was removed from the street of Sunyani, many people are complacent and do not use a nasal mask, and observe the social distancing in public places,” he said, a situation that could trigger the spread of the virus in the Municipality .

Mad Owusu-Banahene indicated that the Assembly would also support and reactivate the activities of ‘Masks Ambassadors’, a group that advocated the use of nasal or facial masks.

Therefore, he called on corporate and religious bodies, and civil society organizations to support the Ambassadors with nasal masks for public distribution.

To promote social distancing, he explained, his team had re-adopted the shift system that would separate traders from market women to reduce congestion in the central Nana Bosoma market and the main Sunyani market.

He thanked the Sunyani Traditional Council, and Nana Bosoma Asor NKrawiri II, Supreme Chief of Sunyani, in particular, for the support given to the assembly last year.
The gesture, he noted, helped prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the council would continue that assistance.

Mad Owusu-Banahene said that the government alone could not take responsibility for the COVID-19 campaign and implored everyone to come contribute and ensure that the masses adhere to health and safety protocols.